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A school opening anchors a community. A school closing essentially guarantees its slow demise, unless there's an abundance and there's alternatives close by.

This

Schools closing singals the last hope for a community. As much as there may be other options or social / community uses for the space, there is no longer the attraction or reason to move into a neighbourhood for new families.

Families with babies will move once they get to school age.
The neighborhood is more than likely filled with elderly people.
When they die their off spring may keep the property and rent it out.
Renters are not as invested in the neighborhood like owners are. Renters do not
rally for paved back lanes and better lightning etc:
Property starts to deteriorate somewhat leaving the area more downtrodden and less
likely that people will want to buy there.
Small business like hairdressers, barbers, day cares start to move out. That leaves room for pawn shops, sex shops, pay day loans furthering the demise of the area.
If a school re-opens families move back into the neighborhood. The school will act as a catalyst for gatherings giving the area a more neighborly feeling and there is a good chance the community will start to rally for improvements in their area.
.

School Closure Moratorium Committee Meeting - Urban Sprawl

"Given the amount of public interest on the issue of school closures, the Board's School Closure Moratorium Committee has also committed to hold a series of public meetings over the next several months. Each meeting will focus on a topic related to an issue that affects school closures. Members of the public will have the opportunity to address the committee by contacting the Board Office. All public meetings will be held in McCauley Chambers at the Centre for Education (One Kingsway). The first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 19, 2011 from 2 to 4 p.m. and will focus on urban sprawl. Additional meetings will also be held between May and October 2011. Further information about these meetings will be posted on the Board of Trustees section of Edmonton Public Schools' website -"

Lifting of moratorium could see new facilities built in mature neighborhoods

BY ANDREA SANDS, EDMONTON JOURNAL JANUARY 13, 2013

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STORYPHOTOS ( 1 )

William Yeh, 11, from left, Carrie Watt and her daughter Meredith, 6, Ruth Callao and her daughter Sophia, 6, and Isaac Chow-Turner, 11. Now that the moratorium on school closures has expired, Watt fears smaller schools like Lansdowne could be consolidated with other Edmonton public schools facing declining enrolments.
Photograph by: John Lucas , Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - It is financially impossible to keep all public schools in Edmonton open now that a moratorium on school closures has ended, although changes won’t be immediate, says a senior manager with the school district.

However, a new approach to tackle the costly problem of underpopulated schools in older neighbourhoods might make future school closures more palatable for parents, says Lorne Parker, managing director of planning, property management and student transportation for Edmonton Public Schools.

It really is: two steps forward, one step back for our mature neighborhoods. City council and school boards operate completely independently of each other, and waves of young kids in the fringes get the new schools, as the older neighborhoods get gutted. Then in 30 years, the wave will force those schools to shut down.

I have never been a proponent of "penalizing" folks for living in the burbs, but in the case of schools I think there may be an exception made.

Interesting idea, and probably one I'd support. I find it frustrating that I bought a house a few years ago in a mature neighbourhood that's now faced with school closures all around it, while my brother lives in the middle of nowhere, but has a new school nearby. If some of these older schools close, and a new one is built, that's a lot better than a bunch of schools closing and a simple reno done to one of them.

They're going to park their car over there. You're going to park your car over here. Get it?

Yah you do get the distinct impression that the new developments are cannibalizing school infrastructure. What they really need it a moratorium on building new schools, which will make central living more attractive (when they get tired of driving their kids into the city) and maybe bring some balance in how the demographics are spread across the city. Continue on this path and we will just repeat the process in another generation or two, a perpetual cycle until we run out of land.

The problem is that while the city benefits from keeping small schools open in mature neighbourhoods, there is no benefit to the school board. I understand why they make the decisions they do but I think the city at the boards should be actively working together.

A good example of the benefits of keeping small schools open is Westglen, where my kids go. It was almost closed and had enrolment falling below 100 students. It was spared and in the years since enrolment has climbing dramatically and the school is thriving. So is the neighbourhood. I know of multiple families that have moved to the neighbourhood because it has a school.

I wonder how many people move to the burbs not because they want to but because they feel they have no choice.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong"

When the issue was last debated in 2012, the final vote was 5-4 in favour of modernizing older schools first. Leading that push was trustee Heather MacKenzie.

“We view maintenance of our existing buildings as key to sustaining them and keeping them open,” she said.

Eight new schools had just been built, MacKenzie said, and it was finally time to spend dollars on fixing up older ones. “Each new school that we received guts a number of other schools in the district that are already under-maintained.”

It doesn’t hurt kids in new suburbs to bus a half-hour to an existing school, MacKenzie said.

Trustee Michael Janz led the fight against making modernization the priority.

“As a board, if we pass this, we’re collectively bating the ‘burbs,” Janz said. “We’re telling people out there that our existing maintenance needs trump our new needs.”

Yes Janz, how dare we make our inner city viable for families at the risk of unbuilt suburbs. What an *****. All parts of the city deserve good schools. Not just the shiny new suburbs. Some of those old schools are in disgusting condition.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction" - Blaise Pascal

"So is anything really different? I would say yes, there are encouraging changes. It is reasonable to expect that three levels of government will be involved in future urban planning.

Schools will be closed in the future. How can this be done respecting the needs and views of communities? In an Andrea Sands article in the Edmonton Journal on January 13th, 2013, Edmonton Public’s Director of Planning, Dr. Lorne Parker spoke at length about the replacement school model. I very much like this model. The idea would see a number of schools (say 3 or 4) in close proximity to each other be closed, and, in return, a new school built to serve communities experiencing closure in the area. It would require gov’t commitment to fund a new school in return for closures. It would require authentic public consultation. Many groupings of schools in the district that would qualify for this approach.

Finally, I think this board’s extraordinary response to community concerns over school closures has reaffirmed, in a very public manner, the importance of community in any school closure decision. I am hopeful that we will never see again, as we did in 2010, a school closure discussion that does not mention the word community once.

well you can blame the parents for moving to these new neighbourhoods only to find out later that there is NOTHING there. You have to DRIVE to the stores. There is no schools, but hey, let's move our family there. Meanwhile there are schools in Edmonton screaming for kids but everybody wants new. New schools. New shops. New houses.
Makes me sick to see this kind of mentality.

As much as I do not like the separated school system that we have, I have redirected my school tax dollars to the catholic system since EPSB closed Parkdale School in 2010. I know a lot of other residents of the area did as well.

In turn the Catholic board has made sure that St. Alphonsus is a viable and active school. EPSB won't get a dime of my money until they reverse their current trajectory and actually make an effort to make the central schools viable

Some choose to scapegoat projects like the Downtown Arena as money that is being used at the expense of the roads and infrastructure.

When it's something less noticeable that is much closer to being the culprit - something like building new schools plus continuing to pay for and maintain schools that are dormant. What a disgusting waste.

In an effort to alleviate overcrowded classrooms in Edmonton's burgeoning southwest neighbourhoods, the province announced a new Catholic school for Windermere residents on Monday.

A "delighted" Premier Alison Redford announced the Kindergarten to Grade 9 Catholic school will benefit as many as 750 students, and is one of six new schools planned in Alberta that will create space for as many as 4,200 new students.
...
One of six new schools announced this month, the Windermere school will be located on the northeast corner of a plot of land near Windermere Road and Windermere Boulevard, said Edmonton-South West MLA Matt Jeneroux.
...

Not thrilled with it being a Catholic school, just because I don't believe that any faith should have a publicly funded, yet 'branded' school. That said, spaces for students are spaces for students, so this is good news.

To sp59.... Absolutely not! Every area has a different tax rate, it's on your city tax assessment. That portion an individual cannot dispute when it comes to increased property taxes! It's a shell game created by the city to extract maximum taxes out if the citizens

Esther Starkman and Johnny Bright elementary schools opened in 2010, the same year that public school trustees voted to close five central schools struggling with low enrolment. Now, just three years later, those new schools have the inverse problem — overcrowding.

As a result, 600 students who lived furthest away had to switch schools. There are thousands more from nine other overpopulated schools, mostly in new southwest Edmonton subdivisions, who might also have to make new friends.

Reno inner city schools or totally rebuild them if it's cheaper and bus the effn kids there.

Exactly. Having a school 5 minutes away from your house is nice but it isn't a necessity. I lived in Millwoods but went to school at St. Basil's which is by NAIT. I rode the yellow school bus for nearly an hour. It wasn't a big deal.

Edmonton Catholic school trustees voted Tuesday night to move ahead with the process to close four southeast Edmonton schools.

The school district hopes to consolidate the four lower-enrolment schools — St. Kevin, St. Brendan, St. Gabriel and St. James — in a newly built K-9 Catholic school on the St. Brendan school site, at 5825 93A Ave.

The province has already announced it will fund the replacement school, which is estimated to cost $25.7 million.

Really looking forward to this and the affect of the old sites; could provide some great greenspaces for the mature and increasingly dense neighbourhoods. The location, however, is a little out of the way. Wished they could have used St. James' or St. Kevin's for their great central locations.

Given that this doesn't represent a closure as much as a replacement, I'm not opposed to this. Particularly since it would create a K-9 school and eliminate a junior high. Junior high as a premise needs to disappear.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong"

I'm rooting for Beverly/Rundle because Highlands and Westmount Schools (both jr high) are two of the most beautiful schools in the city. Maybe if the plan were to rehabilitate those schools as K-9 I'd feel differently.

Rundle heights school has a big parcel, and in "greater highlands" either of the 3 would be big enough but would require a creative land swap with either the Catholic board at Newton or Montrose, the community league (at highlands school, give the league Montrose school in exchange for their land?) or the City (at Mount Royal).

My guess would be they would use the more central RJ or Lawton area. It's interesting that Beacon heights school is not mentioned in this proposal. It must be near end of life as well, although it did just get a large amount of money from Comrie.

As a parent whose kids could have been going to Westmount next year and as a graduate of Westmount I'd say the building is historic but the school seems to be struggling. Of my kids grade six class at Westglen the vast majority seem to be going to Westminster, some to Westmount, and few, including my kids, to Vic.

The creation of a great K-9 school in the area could be a very good thing.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong"

Given that this doesn't represent a closure as much as a replacement, I'm not opposed to this. Particularly since it would create a K-9 school and eliminate a junior high. Junior high as a premise needs to disappear.

Why the preference for K-9 over separate elementary and jr high? I've generally heard that there are educational advantages to smaller elementary schools, although I can see how the boards would prefer the economies of scale of larger schools.

Mostly as I consider junior high a incredibly bad idea. I think kids in that age range do better in schools that contain either younger grades, older grades or both. Grouping one of the most volatile age ranges into one isolated group makes for a bad environment. I'll the admit the opinion is based on my own experiences but I know teachers as well generally agree.

Needless to say I was pleased my kids were able to get into a K-12 school for grade 7.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong"

And so let me get this clear. We hear about infill and revitalization of our character and older areas, and then close the infrastructure families would depend on forcing them to bus thier kids to God knows where. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

The elementary school i went to was a community hub style.. opened in 1973.. Best school i have ever been in. the gym is used every day after school. the classrooms are iopen for the community. the local public library is in the school ( and is the same library used by the kids reducing costs) classrooms and the community hall is part of the same building. the school uses the whole grounds during the day... the community uses it every night.. with this setup the school is the literal lifeblood and place for the whole community.. im somehow not surprised it has taken the City of Edmonton 41 years to do the same concept that has worked so well not too far from town.

It really is: two steps forward, one step back for our mature neighborhoods. City council and school boards operate completely independently of each other, and waves of young kids in the fringes get the new schools, as the older neighborhoods get gutted. Then in 30 years, the wave will force those schools to shut down.

I have never been a proponent of "penalizing" folks for living in the burbs, but in the case of schools I think there may be an exception made.

I grew up in a generation limited neighbourhood that closed its public elementary school despite a number of small apartment buildings in its core. When I moved away from my parents' home I shopped a number of neighbourhoods and liked the high end neighbourhoods but saw their socioeconomic/demographic attraction as an eventual negative for their schools. I saw the greater scale and mix of housing in my current neighbourhood as a great asset towards keeping the neighbourhood viable to future buyers. We have a good number of apartments, a housing co-op, some rather huge homes but most importantly, loads of condos and smaller homes so it's a sustainable neighbourhood in terms of attracting young families in the future. Our 1970s school is seeing significant increases in attendance.

Of course, we've had more upwardly mobile friends and acquaintances who have moved into the upscale neighbourhoods for the status effect and social and other "utility", then 'dis' our neighbourhood and part of town but it's not my problem that they can't see the value that we can see.

Instead of big swaths of fields, the city should sell a portion to a developer, then use the revenue to improve a park area to be more treed and more "Olmsteadian" than barren, flat, buzzed soccer field. A couple benches centred around a piece of art or fountain. Bam. Our Cabotto park is a lot like Montreal's in that it is more than a field. Better more useful designs can lead to better improved use. There is a fine balance. Mount Pleasant did an okay job, but their parks still look terrible.

I'm pretty happy about it. Beverly has 6 elementary schools that really are walking distance (based on the walking distance a kid of the 80s had to walk) and all 6 have low enrollment numbers. It makes sense to drop 2 elementary and a junior high (that is too big for the enrollment) and make one school to house those former 3.

Great for the area, unfortunately they picked the wrong location. Should have been in the RJ Scott field- more central and better ETS access. It would also draw kids from Beacon heights schools which are also in the same condition.

Great for the area, unfortunately they picked the wrong location. Should have been in the RJ Scott field- more central and better ETS access. It would also draw kids from Beacon heights schools which are also in the same condition.

I would agree with this. I am lost of the logic of putting it on the Rundle site. Perhaps that had the most space?

The plan is to keep all 3 open while building the K-9. Perhaps there was not enough space to do that on the RJ site?